passive plant killer

[delta9nxs]

yeah and with perlite, coco is even worse about drying. you are really drying the medium and that's the only problem.

a wick and water a lot

 

[stagehand099]

Hey I.M. and Disciple...Thanks sp much for your posts. I'm so newby at this way of doing it! I've been organic to the hilt for over a decade and I have always wanted to try other ways. I love organic, don't get me wrong....but I love me some large trees with anything over 5 zips, too, if you know what I mean. If I seem a bit boisterous right now, its because I just got back from happy hour with 20 cent shrimp and oysters and 1.99 drinks....but anyway, I'm gonna make an intelligent response when I come back to earth later. Thanks for taking the time.

stagehand

 

[delta9nxs]

"Delta9 may have meant a 200ppm solution."

actually, i did mean a 2000 ppm solution. and i didn't answer stagehand's question.

when i first started with coco i got the same cec binding issue that they all talk about in the coco forum. i found that, after a heavy rinse with regular tap water, i could pour a 2000 ppm solution through one time. let it drain, and throw a plant in with none of the issues.

i got to the point where i was taking a 5 gal bucket, eyeballing about 4 gals into it, throwing in a tablespoon of each part, and not even checking for tds. ro water.

later, when you go ppk, you will sneer at 5 oz plants. my lightest strains are still hitting 12. but your sneer will be friendly. i can't even imagine that.

 

[delta9nxs]

disciple, you have a call on line two! i think it is a telemarketer. pm

 

[disciple]

 

[stagehand099]

I'll pop in when I'm in the city and post pics (no Internet where I'm going!!!! - may get satellite or figure something else out).

- have fun y'all

*edit: Oh jesus!!! 2,000 ppm? shows how much I don't know!! What is really impressive about that is that you'd even think to try it!! The thought process... very cool![/quote]

Hey Disciple, Man you goin' on vacaaaaa as they say? Good on ya!

D9, My last post somehow followed your posts. So thanks for responding also. I have a steep learning curve with "water every day"...contrary to my upbringing and experience, but then throw in a pump and recirculation, and I don't know shit.......

Tonight, I don't know shit generally, because I'm just too effin' high right now.......

So, stagehand is signing off from the (way too early) steamy south. Thanks for all yalls help.

stagehand

 

[stagehand099]

I so want to learn to sneer at under 5's. I like that idea, berry, berry much. Oh, GOD, I'm regressing before my own eyes............

stagehand

 

[delta9nxs]

disciple

thank you very much for your belief and support. have a nice adventure!

 

[delta9nxs]

I so want to learn to sneer at under 5's. I like that idea, berry, berry much. Oh, GOD, I'm regressing before my own eyes............

stagehand

honest to buddha, if i got only 5 from a plant right now i would scratch my head and wonder where i fucked up. my wife would say "what's wrong?", i would tell her and she would say "where did you fuck up?".

 

[high life 45]

Blessings on your new digs Disciple!

Delta9 is that trainwreck one of the cuts or did you pop that from a seed?
I am hopefuly getting TW and Mean Green this week.

 

[delta9nxs]

Blessings on your new digs Disciple!

Delta9 is that trainwreck one of the cuts or did you pop that from a seed?
I am hopefuly getting TW and Mean Green this week.

i got an 11 pack from drgreenthumb, feminized, and popped three, this one just looked evil and i didn't like the structure of the other two in veg, i didn't like the way they shaped.

but this is a cutting of that, i never ran the seedling. i'll use seedlings sometimes if i like the structure but usually i get more from a clone.

i think i got lucky with this one. the buds are very hard and dense, filthy with trichs, and it turned into a big plant. a lot of weight. i still have 10-12 days to go and the buds are filling out and bulking nicely.

you see the curly cue pistils? it grows like that from the beginning. i've never had a plant with that so pronounced before.

it grows like a willow. really floppy. say really floppy willow. i can't just tie up the end of a branch and expect the branch stem to support it like most other plants. so you either need bungees or grow it floppy. i chose floppy. floppy style. cascading forward between the lights. the pulse keeps hittin, the pwt keeps getting sucked out, and the buds just get bigger.

the trainwreck would be good in one of those topsy turvy tomato things.

 

[high life 45]

i got an 11 pack from drgreenthumb, feminized, and popped three, this one just looked evil and i didn't like the structure of the other two in veg, i didn't like the way they shaped.

but this is a cutting of that, i never ran the seedling. i'll use seedlings sometimes if i like the structure but usually i get more from a clone.

i think i got lucky with this one. the buds are very hard and dense, filthy with trichs, and it turned into a big plant. a lot of weight. i still have 10-12 days to go and the buds are filling out and bulking nicely.

you see the curly cue pistils? it grows like that from the beginning. i've never had a plant with that so pronounced before.

it grows like a willow. really floppy. say really floppy willow. i can't just tie up the end of a branch and expect the branch stem to support it like most other plants. so you either need bungees or grow it floppy. i chose floppy. floppy style. cascading forward between the lights. the pulse keeps hittin, the pwt keeps getting sucked out, and the buds just get bigger.

the trainwreck would be good in one of those topsy turvy tomato things.

Cool theres a few different wreck cuts around here. Four or five years ago it seemed like everyone was growing it. We were walking on so much TW it lost a lot of its value in the local market. Now its having a bit of a revival.

Thats funny alot of the big outdoor folks Ive come across are always growing from seed. They always say that seed produce bigger healthier more vigorous trees. I grow from clones myself. Although I am gonna start making seeds. After almost loosing one of my favorite strains I realized just how important seeds are. There are so many delicious strains in my neck of the woods. I feel like I could really come up with some amazing crosses using the local genepool.

I am almost finished with my job so my sched will be free for a month or so and will be able to get back to focusing on the PPK project very soon. I will get a thread going, I promise. Luckily, my friend came through with all the cuttings I will need.
Thank YoUniverse.

 

[thesloppy]

I apologize for the only slightly related question, that is likely covered a few times deep in this thread, but I am fascinated by the discussion in here, and how some of the underlying science applies to my simple setup, even if I don't have the time/space/effort to try my own dedicated PPK experiment (yet):

Does a synthetic internal wick (like say a length of poly rope running the height of the container), have any added effect on dispersing/concentrating nutrients/waste/salts, and/or does it have any effect on the PWT, beyond that of an external wick, or a medium wick? I guess I'm wondering if a wick made out of something other than the medium (more porous?), extending the full height of the container, will serve to draw more water upward, further than an external/medium wick will allow, while providing the same drainage benefits, or is the capillary action defined by the medium and the wick material doesn't play that much of a role?

What about in a flooded pan....like, a capillary mat wick at the bottom of a pan (used in some early references) probably isn't going to work to purge the PWT if that pan is flooded (is it?), but would an internal wick allow for better water/nutrient dispersal, and keep a container from getting perched while it's (occasionally) in standing water? I hope that question makes sense, and isn't completely moronic.

 

[stagehand099]

Thanks, yall, for all the good advice. I guess I have to wrap my head around the idea of feeding/watering daily and other "foreign concepts". I'll come out the other side eventually because I love to learn and master new things.

Note to self: Don't post when wasted.....

stagehand

 

[ImaginaryFriend]

I so want to learn to sneer at under 5's.

Sneering isn't a learned behavior. Either you got it or you don't.

I don't have the time/space/effort to try my own dedicated PPK experiment (yet):

Hey everyone, this is thesloppy. You should read his thread. He may or may not know it, but he belongs here.

slop, you should hang out here more. Don't get stressed on reading the 215 pages for now... someone will post a link to a summary in a second. Shit... I just read like three pages in your thread that was fourteen pages long before I posted. Just hang around and check out the thread for a minute.

Your bottom feed technique is very different from the PPK with regard to moisture profile and gas management in root zone.

It is as lazy though.

And that's why I like you.

*mistress* suggests watering large plants through the top into a large collection tray, and allowing them to absorb the excess nutes. 'She' says it's a good system.

The synthetic internal wick will move some water up through the zone if it has the right qualities. I'm not a huge fan of the idea. I would prefer to modify the characteristics of my media to adjust the overall moisture profile.

Or wait... just build a PPK.

Because you do have the space, and you are practical enough to understand that the twenty minutes that goes into assembling a module will provide ample dividends in miscreating and layabouting down the road.

 

[thesloppy]

Your bottom feed technique is very different from the PPK with regard to moisture profile and gas management in root zone.

Thank you for such a kind introduction, IF! I think we can agree there's not much management OR technique to straight bottom-feeding. I have adapted to 3-4 top flushes per cycle these days, which does alleviate some gasses, but admittedly my efficiency obviously suffers for the sake of my convenience.

*mistress* suggests watering large plants through the top into a large collection tray, and allowing them to absorb the excess nutes. 'She' says it's a good system.

The synthetic internal wick will move some water up through the zone if it has the right qualities. I'm not a huge fan of the idea. I would prefer to modify the characteristics of my media to adjust the overall moisture profile.

Or wait... just build a PPK.

Yeah, I don't feel confident/knowledgable enough to fuck around with my media recipes too much at this point, because I'm in a relatively dangerous position.....that of the grower who is dialed in just barely enough that he's afraid to change. I've kinda reached the limits of space and light in my little cab, so the only way I can push the results further is by finally actually putting some real effort into learning about the whole process, rather than just mimicking what the experts do. The internal wick would be an easy step for me to introduce to my existing set-up, without too much risk of taking a backward step (if even temporarily), which is why I'm curious about that in particular.

The biggest thing blocking me from making a full-on PPK isn't so much the effort or thought required (that's just about the perfect size project for my attention span), so much as it would require me to shift from my small pot, no-veg SoG setup, and cull some moms for the required veg space. Has anybody made something like mini PPKs for SoG?

 

[ImaginaryFriend]

mini PPKs for SoG?

Yep. Easy as pie.

Same build, smaller pieces.

Hell, if you wanted, you could build long/tall pots where the tail piece is 'included'... sit them directly in the sub reservoir. It just eats up a bit more media, but that's largely irrelevant in a SOG scenerio anyway.

The biggest thing to get your brains around is the pulse feed, that serves many purposes. It:

1. Exchanges gases in the media often = Good root zone O2.
2. It reconnects any breaks in the hydraulic column = system stability.
3. It flushes any salts back into the system = no build ups/lock out issues.

People who build a PPK without the pulse have moved in the right direction, but are missing some very beneficial components.

You can pretty easily build a pulse manifold for little pots using standard irrigation supplies available at box stores.

 

[thesloppy]

Thx for humoring me, IF.

I do like the idea of the pulse feed, as adding some kind of reservoir and automation is the next step I'd like to take, since it furthers my lazy tendencies, and there are cheap 9 outlet manifolds that would squeeze right into my existing set-up somewhat easily. Would I be accomplishing the same concept as a PPK if I added a pulse feed to the top of all of my little pots, and put a capilary mat in their drainage pan (which would sit above, and drain into the reservoir)? In the original/traditional PPK the wick seems to dip into the reservoir, where as a mat sitting in a drainage pan would only serve to draw the excess water out of the medium, rather than back up into the medium....but the original design was also depending on the wick doing the feeding, rather than the pulse, so would the mat solution be as effective? I'm a brokeass, in addition to being motivationally challenged, so the idea of re-using,and/or adjusting my current set-up to jam into the margins of the PPK idea is appealing, aside from just the fear of backstepping.

 

[cyat]

ppks seem great, I just still dont understand how to make em..

you guys get so deep into this supposed simple device that it goes right over my head, and Ive been folowing this for a while

pulse watering, hand watering, drain to waste, float valve controlled, sub irrigated, what esle? self levitated...

hmm.... the ppk enigma

man I'm confused

 

[cyat]

I'd go build 12 of em right now if I had a clue!

And you got like 12 zips or the more off the simple ones... more than good enough